This series of messages, Living Prophetically in Turbulent Times, has certainly gotten me thinking about some interesting things. This morning I want to ask the questions:

• How do you know it's God speaking to you?
• Does God still speak to people as he did to the prophets of old?

This past week the press has been trying to attack the President to do with his statements that he prays about his decisions. They infer in n not so subtle fashion that someone who claims to hear from God must be unstable. How did we get so cynical?

I think in some ways people have a right to be leery about what has come to be known as "personal prophecy." You know sister so and so says, "The Lord told me thus and so." What do you do with something like that? It can be so subjective, so hard to validate. Frankly, I worked in a mental hospital years ago, and lots of people do strange things because "God told them."

Does this negate the possibility that God still speaks to us about personal things? Is there no place for someone to say, "the Lord told me"? As with anything, the answer is to be found in the Lord's Word. There are some simple things we can do to bring some balance to this important subject. We need to learn how to rightly handle the Word. I say this because the Lord will never tell us something that He has not spoken in His Written Word. He certainly will never say something to us in another fashion that contradicts anything in His Word.

As we get into this vital subject, let's do so with teachable spirit and a willingness to be used by the Lord. We need to be able to distinguish what is His voice and what is not His voice. He still speaks; let us learn to listen.